Category: MUSEUM

‼️September 8, 1900‼️

This is an important date in Texas, and Pasadena, history.

🌀🌊The night of September 8, 1900, a 15-foot storm surge rolled through Galveston, Texas with estimates of killing over 8,000 people on Galveston Island and claiming several thousand more on the mainland. History proves this was the largest natural disaster in the United States and Texas.

😵People woke up to the horror of deceased bodies in the streets and more than 2,60” homes were destroyed …with the City of Galveston experiencing over 28-30 million in property loss.

😬Edward Payson, Anna Pomeroy, and their son John Edward were fortunate to have survived this tragic disaster. Those who did survive would wake up on September 9, 1900, to Galveston being completely cut off from the outside world due to the destruction of bridges and telegraph lines.

⛑️Volunteers to assist, arrived on September 10 to find the city completely in ruins and then famine, pestilence, and looting began the next day, September 11. Most survivors were left homeless and went inland to build a new life in Houston or surrounding communities. All states sent aid to Galveston ….and by September 16, plans began to rebuild Galveston were discussed.

🏠Edward, Anna, and young John arrived in what is now Pasadena and bought 1.66 acres of land from Col. Burnett and they took the wood off the property and build their first home.

⛑️Clara Barton, who was the founder of the American Red Cross, brought her team to help the Texas Gulf Coast.

🍓After she viewed all the destruction, she saw that all the farmers in this area and along the gulf coast had lost all their farms and homes. Clara Barton had over 1.5 million strawberry plants sent to this area by railway and many of the farmers began their strawberry farming businesses.

🙏This weekend we stop to remember the disaster and all who survived….and we give thanks to Edward, Anna, and young John for coming to Pasadena rebuilding their lives ….along with Clara Barton for contributing to the agriculture success of this area.

👏Without these important people in history we would not have become the vibrant city and community we are today.

Heritage Park & Museum

📋Speaking of the METROPOLITAN MILK COMPANY! Please enjoy these treasures we have for our new exhibit at the Museum. We located the 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗿𝘆 of Edward Payson Pomeroy that he used in the building of his Metropolitan Milk Company, along with some of the receipts of his company.

🥰When Edward Payson Pomeroy came to Galveston as an engineer, he met and married the young Anna Louise Kresta from Austria. Payson soon retired and began the Metropolitan Milk Company.

After the 1900 Hurricane in Galveston, Payson moved his family to Pasadena in 1901. He ran for the Texas House of Representatives and studied law in his spare time. He served on the newly formed school board and when he passed away, he was the first person buried in the newly formed Crown Hill Cemetery on October 23, 1906.

What a great story! Request your tour online at: www.pasadenatx.gov/museum

Heritage Park & Museum

🥛👉Please enjoy the photos the Museum received from C. David Pomeroy Jr. and a gentleman he met that found, and owns, an original Milk Bottle from the Metropolitan Milk Company! William Payson Pomeroy, his great grandfather, had made this bottle for his Milk business in Galveston in the late 1800’s. C. David Pomeroy Jr. is an attorney, and historian, and his book titled, “Pasadena, The Early Years” is the tool we use at the museum regarding Pasadena History. Enjoy his article below:

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C. David Pomeroy Jr. writes:

It is easy to exaggerate a story to make others interested in it. Just a slight embellishment here and there. As a recipient of many family stories, it is exciting when you realize some of your family’s wonderful stories are more than just an interesting and exciting tales. I was told that my great grandfather, Edward Payson Pomeroy had a dairy and introduced the first glass milk bottles to Texas. As a small child that sounded exciting; he was part of History! My grandfather, John Edward Pomeroy told me no one was interested in history, it was only memories. But at the suggestion of my wife, Cait, I began to research history. My grandfather witnessed the first airplane flight in Texas. He rode his horse over to a prairie at South Houston and here was a man flying through the air. However, it would be 50 years later before he actually flew through the air. And a couple of months later he took his mother and his girlfriend (later wife) to the San Jacinto battleground and shook the hands of the last two survivors of that great battle that won Texas its independence from Mexico and eventually statehood in the United States. On his deathbed I held his hand, thinking of my connection to history.

A couple of years ago Brandon DeWolf, bottle digger/ collector from Houston contacted me. He was digging for antique glass in Galveston and found a quart milk bottle which was embossed on the front, “Metropolitan Milk Company, E. P. Pomeroy, Manager.” This was tangible proof that the family stories might be true. My research confirmed, my great grandfather had those bottles made in 1894 and by a long shot, it was the first glass milk bottle in Texas. He started a dairy in Brenham, moved to Galveston where he had lived previously and then to Pasadena. By the time the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900 blew him to Pasadena, there were others selling milk in air tight glass milk bottles. The trend had started. Recently I travelled to Houston from my home in Asheville, North Carolina and held the bottle he found. My great grandparents also held that bottle, 130 years ago.

As Paul Harvey would say, “and the rest of the story” is yet to be told. I will apply for a Texas Historical Marker for that historical first and then a new exhibit will be set up at the Pasadena Heritage Park to share the story with the public. In reality we all are a part of history; some make it and some witness it. It is this past that we build our future upon

Heritage Park & Museum

👏We had a college student visit the museum who is attending Princeton University and is working on his thesis. He grew up in Pasadena and truly enjoyed his childhood here. He was looking for any information on the Hispanic community in Pasadena during the 1980’s until the present day.

🍓We had a great visit discussing the rich history of the Hispanic community in Pasadena from the days of Strawberry Farming, the Mexican Baptist Church in the early 1900’s, the opening of St. Pius church in Pasadena, and the workers who came and lived here from Mexico to work and also present day.

🪴We also discussed how Satsuma Gardens had many farms that had owners who were Hispanic….and they hired workers who were Hispanic in their farms in the 1890’s to the early 1900’s. There was also a large Hispanic community who were true Cowboys and worked with cattle on the Famous Allen Ranch in Texas. More present day, we had a bus station that operated on Richey Street that had a large Hispanic clientele that would take clients from Pasadena to Mexico and back in the 1980’s to 1990’s.

🎉We are thankful for his visit and we look forward to visiting with him again soon!

📲Schedule your tour online at: www.pasadenatx.gov/museum

Heritage Park & Museum

We had some special visitors come to tour the museum. The great, great, great granddaughter of the former President and Mexican General, of Mexico, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was visiting with her family here in Pasadena. Her daughter and granddaughter came with her, too! We had such interesting discussions on the history of Pasadena, the Heritage Park and Museum, and the Texas Revolution. We also discussed how her grandfather was captured in Pasadena and what his life was like in Mexico after the war. We all enjoyed learning from each other what life was like in Pasadena in the early 1900s to 1940’s and we also discussed her life in Mexico and in Texas. ❤️

If you and your family would like to tour the museum, please go to our website: www.pasadenatx.gov/museum and schedule a tour. Tours are by appointment only. Also, our phones are being repaired, so if you need to contact the museum, please email [email protected]

Heritage Park & Museum